Every day, painter Phan Van Dac spends two hours brainstorming and painting dried banana peels to introduce the homeland and people of Quang Binh.
The painter Van Dac, 79 this year, lives with his children and grandchildren in a small house in Dong Hoi town, Quang Binh province, next to the Nhat Le river. The living room on the first floor is decorated with many large paintings made by him with dried banana peels.
Introducing the painting That Luong, painter Dac recounts that many years ago he visited Laos. Seeing the majestic tower, he sketched on paper to work with materials he had found himself. The images are cut, assembled and pasted with dried banana peels, with simple colors including yellow, cockroach wings, brown, and black.
The painter Van Dac, who creates paintings with banana peels. Photo: Hoang Apple
Mr. Dac came to the dried banana peel painting by accident. In 1965, he joined the army and was stationed in the western battlefield of Quang Tri. Within a few minutes of resting in the hammock, he wanted to write a piece but couldn’t find any pen and paper around. Seeing the banana forest spread its vitality between bombs and bullets, around the banana stems there are hard dry midribs, he came up with the idea to compose a picture of this material.
When he went to the army to borrow scissors, Mr. Dac cut it into a small image of a ballet dancer, entitled Spring longing. On the way to the parade, he happened to meet an old friend who is a teacher, and he gave her a picture, which was hung in the dorm room. Years later, when he met again, he heard his friend wailing: “Your painting made me suffer so much, I haven’t received a raise in 4 years”. The artistic concept at that time did not accept the image of a dancer in a painting, so it was difficult for friends, he explained.
He studied for three years at the secondary level in mechanical engineering, but Mr. Dac doesn’t follow his profession. In 1973, he was discharged from the army to work in the (former) Dong Hoi City People’s Committee, with the duties of drawing, making slogans, posters, etc. Remembering wartime drawings, in 1980 Mr Dac began researching painting, making many drawings from dried banana peels. At first it was just small, simple pictures, encouraged by friends, but as time went on he became passionate. Since then, he has created around 700 paintings and opened three solo exhibitions.
“All my life I was passionate about painting, I was self-taught, researched on my own, found materials, didn’t go to school,” the painter Van Dac confessed and proudly “I built a house and raised children thanks in the drawing of a banana peel”.
Retired since 2000, the painter Van Dac mostly composes. Now that the economy and tourism are developing, many tourists and tourist areas come to buy his paintings. Domestic and foreign tourists buy paintings as souvenirs when visiting Quang Binh. Provinces also buy banana paintings and give them to partners as special gifts.
Without using paints and brushes like most other painters, he goes to the banana plantations around Dong Hoi city, picking the dried fronds on the stems to cut, clean, dry, then flatten, treat to avoid termites. “You have to choose a dry sheath on the body, not cut it fresh and then dry it,” says Mr Dac. When the gallery was very popular, his wife had to go to every banana grove, selectively cutting the dried fronds so she could spend time composing.
After getting the idea, he cut a banana peel, then mixed the colors of the cockroach wings, brown, yellow, and black and glued them to a plywood rod, and today glued it to aluminum sheet (aluminum plastic sheet used in advertising fox, interior), enclosure exterior, glazed or not. At present, the quality of the glue is good and there is moisture-proof technology, so that the life of the painting is extended for several decades.
The painter Van Dac introduces a landscape painting of the country of Trieu Voi, Laos. Photo: Hoang Apple
The main themes in Dac’s paintings are historical relics, soldiers, landscapes, and portraits. “Time to compose depends on inspiration, there are simple color paintings that are done quickly, but there are worries for days in a row,” he said. Usually painting about history and natural landscapes, he devotes much of his heart to “having to bring his soul back to painting”. Views like Hoang Phuc Pagoda, Old Street..., he visited the place, sketched on paper and then returned to write.
“I displayed my paintings in exhibitions and won several prizes, but the land is small, so I can only develop my paintings to a certain extent,” he said. The artist donated many paintings to the museum, such as lotus flavor portrait of President Ho Chi Minh presented to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Endpoint composed of liberation soldiers donated to the Vietnam Military Museum, a portrait of General Vo Nguyen Giap dedicated to his homeland Le Thuy…
Painter Van Dac plans a creative camp in Da Nang next April and completes a book 80 years remaining for his children.
Dried banana peel, artwork by the painter Van Dac. Photo: Hoang Apple
Painter Nguyen Luong Sang, Head of the Division of Fine Arts (Quang Binh Arts and Literature Association), said that Van Dac painters belonged to the first generation of Quang Binh art and grew up in the Quang Binh cultural propaganda movement. war of resistance against America and nation building. He has contributed to bringing the image of Quang Binh’s homeland, culture and people to domestic friends and international tourists.
“Looking at the painting, we can feel the warm breath of the earth, from the village, from the familiar corner of the garden. He was also very successful with a series of war topics built from sketches, notes from the battlefield adapted through banana peels,” said artist Sang.
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